Edgerton Hill, including boundary wall, gate piers, former kitchen garden walls and outbuildings

Edgerton Hill is a villa built around 1820 in a classical style, with late 19th-century and 20th-century alterations. It is constructed of sandstone with stone slate and slate roofs.

Plan and Setting

The house is roughly U-shaped and two storeys high, set back from the south-east side of Edgerton Road. The principal rooms occupy the south and east (garden) ranges, with the main entrance on the south side. The service and coach house range extends to the west. A basement lies below the east range.

Exterior

South Elevation

The main south front is of two storeys with three symmetrical bays built in ashlar stone. It has a plinth, moulded eaves cornice and blocking course, with a hipped stone slate roof. The ground floor features a central projecting porch (late 19th century) with an entablature and fielded-panel double doors beneath a semi-circular fanlight, flanked by Ionic columns supporting an open triangular pediment. A brass plaque on the right side of the doorway reads: ASSOCIATION OF / UKRAINIANS / IN GREAT BRITAIN LTD / HUDDERSFIELD BRANCH. On either side of the porch is a round-headed window with moulded imposts, voussoirs and a giant keystone. Flanking the porch are two vertical square-headed windows, with three similar but shorter windows on the first floor. All windows have one-over-one pane horned sashes.

Attached to the left and slightly recessed is a two-bay, two-storey range built of narrower coursed dressed stone, also with a plinth, moulded eaves cornice and blocking course. Its stone slate roof is hipped to the right with a gable on the left outer side. There are two similar square-headed windows on both ground and first floors. Set further back on the left is the south end of the service and coach house range, which runs at right angles to the south range. It is also built of narrower coursed dressed stone with a hipped slate roof. An upper doorway is reached by a metal external staircase attached parallel to the wall.

East Elevation (Garden Front)

The east elevation is of ashlar stone with a plinth, moulded eaves cornice and blocking course. It is two storeys high with a semi-subterranean basement and five bays. The second bay is a broad, full-height semi-circular projection containing three square-headed windows on both floors. The first, third, fourth and fifth bays also have similar square-headed windows on both floors. All windows are one-over-one pane horned sashes. At basement level there are segmental-arch windows to the second, third, fourth and fifth bays.

Attached to the right-hand corner is a projecting single-storey billiard room (late 19th century) of coursed rock-faced stone with ashlar dressings and a hipped slate roof with roof lights. The central doorway is flanked by slim square-headed windows.

West and Rear Elevations

The west elevation of the service and coach house range is two storeys of narrow coursed dressed stonework. It has irregularly spaced square-headed windows on both floors, one with a stone surround, and a small circular window. Attached to the left is a 20th-century single-storey lean-to structure, also of coursed dressed stonework with a slate roof.

The rear elevations are also of narrow coursed dressed stonework with stone gutter brackets. On both floors are a series of square-headed windows with one-over-one and two-over-two pane horned sashes, some with stone surrounds. The first floor of the service and coach house range has a large circular window with a stone surround. A section of the ground-floor wall in the east range is supported by an iron beam on two stone imposts and a central column with capital. Now blocked, this section would originally have been open, forming a loggia. The billiard room has a prominent hexagonal chimney and three one-over-one pane etched glass horned sashes.

Interior

Ground Floor

The porch has an inlaid marble floor and opens into an entrance and staircase hall with three principal rooms: two to the east and a smaller room to the west. The entrance hall is divided by an arch with moulded pilasters and imposts, and has moulded cornicing and dado rails. The doorcases have moulded architraves and tall projecting cornices. The open string staircase incorporates two quarter turns and has decorative ironwork balusters and a timber swept handrail ending in an end spiral on a curtail step.

The one quarter landing has a niche now containing two large plaques. The upper plaque commemorates the Holodomor with an English and Ukrainian inscription reading: HOLODOMOR 1932-33 / IN MEMORY OF THE MILLIONS OF INNOCENT / VICTIMS OF THE ENFORCED / FAMINE-GENOCIDE IN UKRAINE ENGINEERED BY JOSEPH STALIN. The lower plaque commemorates the millennium of Christianity in Ukraine, also with an English and Ukrainian inscription: 988 - 1988 / MILLENNIUM / OF /CHRISTIANITY IN UKRAINE / UNVEILED BY THE MAYOR OF KIRKLEES / COUNCILLOR JOHN C. HOLT / UNVEILED ON 1ST OCTOBER 1988. / COMMEMORATED BY / THE UKRAINIAN COMMUNITY / IN HUDDERSFIELD.

The principal rooms, which have ornate cornicing, are used as function rooms by the Ukrainian Club. A bar area has been inserted into the southernmost room of the east range, which is dual aspect facing east and south, with the semi-circular bay to the east. The northernmost room faces east and was knocked through to the billiard room in the 1970s to form one large performance space with a stage. This room has a loggia which has since been blocked in and subsumed into the main body of the room. The billiard room, added in the late 19th century, retains its original entrance with moulded cornicing. It is open to the roof and has a series of roof lights to the south. Initially used by the Association of Ukrainians as a chapel, the roof of the billiard room was painted in the mid to late 20th century with religious images.

The smaller south-facing room is knocked through with an adjacent room in the south range, which has moulded cornicing and two niches either side of a chimneystack at the west end. The former servants' staircase is in a passage adjoining this room and has a straight flight open string with a winder at the bottom and slim balusters. There are also several fitted cupboards in this passage. The 20th-century single-storey extension to the north of the south range was probably built to house an above-ground kitchen. The northern part of the service and coach house range is now used as a garage and workshop, with some wooden panelling and shelving on the west wall.

First Floor

The main landing leads to a series of principal bedrooms facing east and south. It is divided by three arches with moulded pilasters and imposts, and has moulded cornicing and a large octagonal roof light. The bedrooms have moulded cornicing, picture rails, 19th-century fireplace surrounds, and six-panelled doors with architraves. The rooms to the west are much plainer in style and many have been modernised, although a number retain moulded cornicing, fireplace surrounds, six-panelled doors with moulded architraves, and fitted cupboards.

Basement

The basement extends below the east range and is accessed from a straight flight of stairs below the main staircase. There is also an external access into the courtyard. It retains several original kitchen and storage features including stone floors, coal chutes, a large fireplace surround (now truncated by an inserted wall), stone cold slabs, and wine racks.

Subsidiary Features

A stone boundary wall surrounds the house and gardens. The entrance from Edgerton Road is of curved ashlar stonework with moulded copings and ashlar stone gatepiers. The left-hand pier is inscribed EDGERTON and the right-hand pier HILL. To the north of the villa is a series of walls with a single-storey outhouse at the south-east end which would once have marked out a kitchen garden. The walls are stone on the outer face with regularly-spaced pilasters and brick on the inner face. The boundary wall, gatepiers, former kitchen garden walls and outbuildings are included in the listing.